Saturday, 23 December 2017

The art installation in Hut 367 had been given a title by artist Louise Mabbs - No Cradle, No Cross - highlighting the fact that if Jesus had not been born then there wouldn't have been a crucifixion and salvation for the world.

The centre piece of the installation was a large cross which filled the back wall of the hut and which was made from old foil mince pie containers. Throughout the month we have been collecting these as people have discarded them after eating the free mince pies we give out every night. So in a way everyone has contributed to making this artwork.In front of the 'mince pie cross' a wire bowl was hung and a torch shone on it in such a way that the shadow of the intricate design of the bowl was projected onto the back wall. Then we could see that this contained the word 'peace' many times, woven into the wire that made up the shape.

This recognised that fact that at Jesus' birth the angels sang "peace on earth, goodwill to all" and that one of the names given to him in the Bible was Prince of Peace.Either side of the hut, hung on the doors, was a set of gossamer pockets containing a series of interesting and unusual Christmas cards.Many of these also bore a message of peace to the world. Our final hut tomorrow has become a bit of a tradition and is number 395, as it has been for most of the preceding years.